Robin Soderling will always be remembered as the man who defeated Rafa Nadal for the first time at the French Open, thereby ending the Spaniard's hopes of winning a record fifth successive title. Now, tomorrow, he will be hoping that the tennis world may herald him as a grand slam champion in his own right. In yesterday's first semi-final the Swede's amazing fortnight took another dramatic twist when, having surrendered a two-set lead, he turned around a 4–1 deficit in the fifth set against Chile's Fernando González to win 6–3, 7–5, 5–7, 4–6, 6–4.

It was thrilling contest, awash with the most spectacular, uninhibited hitting, though not without controversy. At 4–4 in the fourth set González, who defeated Andy Murray in the quarter-finals, questioned a line call, and when it went against him he rubbed the mark out with his bottom. Nobody could remember such a thing happening before, and the French crowd whistled their displeasure. They have a never liked a smart arse, particularly one covered in clay, though generally they were on the side of González throughout.

Realising he had a fundamental error of judgment – "I just did something for fun" – to say nothing of tennis etiquette, the Chilean worked hard to get the crowd back in his side, which he managed. After all, he was supposed to be the hero and Soderling the villain. González's anger and frustration was transmitted into a burst of fiery form that saw him level the match, and then surge into what seemed an unbridgeable lead. It appeared the Soderling tank was empty, yet far from losing his nerve the Swede, who had never previously gone past the third round of any slam, went for broke, ripping both forehands and backhands past the South American.

Having been brought up on the multi-slam success of Bjorn Borg, Stefan Edberg, and Mats Wilander, the Swedish public have considered Soderling as something of a whinger and a whiner, while his reputation in the world's locker rooms is as one of the awkward squad, fractious and intractable. Soderling does not deny it. "As a kid I could be the worse kind of loser. When my family and I played board games at home I would slam the table and just run out of the room if I lost, really angry. That will not happen any more."

The influence of his fellow Swede Magnus Norman, the runner-up here against Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten in 2000, has been considerable, Norman having worked with him for the last six months. "What is most important is that he has been through all this before," said Soderling. "It really helps to have a coach like that. I can always ask him what he did."

Soderling's talent has rarely been in doubt, simply his temperament. He has walked a tightrope of emotions, not wanting to bottle things up, but also realising that the red mists have caused him to lose matches he should have won, although this was certainly not the case against González.

Having made such a wonderfully confident start, playing the kind of aggressive, attacking tennis that has so rocked the world No1 Nadal, and then completely demolished Russia's Nikolay Davydenko in the quarter-finals, Soderling displayed the first signs of frailty, missing shots that previously had been second nature. González, the Australian Open runner-up two years ago, sensed the momentum was shifting and hustled his way back. Suddenly the Swede's energy levels seemed dissipated.

Then equally suddenly González became overly tentative, particularly on his serve. Soderling sniffed the tension and went for the kill, winning the last five games and then dropping to his knees in the fashion of Borg who was watching from the President's box. The semi-final had lasted nearly three and a half hours. "I felt tired during the game. When I play my best tennis I can beat anybody, but I am expecting the toughest match I can possibly have on Sunday."